


Don't Ask Don't Tell

by Secret_Glances



Category: Red Robin (Comics), Superboy (Comics), Teen Titans (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-08
Updated: 2014-03-08
Packaged: 2018-01-15 01:57:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1286914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Secret_Glances/pseuds/Secret_Glances
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tim finds Conner on the battlefield, and words are finally spoken.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Don't Ask Don't Tell

His boots pounded against the wet mud and yellow grass. The sky was a blend of smoky greys and light falling rain. The smell of metal and gunpowder filled the air. All around him were fallen bodies. Some faces he recognized, most he didn’t. Inside his head, he said a prayer for every one.

His heart felt like it was pounding out of his chest. His ears throbbed, and he couldn’t really hear or see anything. But he tasted something metallic and dirt. He had been running for a while, but he didn’t feel tired. His whole body felt like it was full of power. The adrenaline was rushing through his veins.

He was frantically searching.

Relief washed over him like a wave of cool water when he found him, and he ran towards him like it’d been thousand years seen he’d seen him. He couldn’t stop himself from smiling, it hurt the muscles in his face. But when he realized what had happened, terror struck his heart like a knife.

“Conner…oh Conner, no.” His legs were trapped beneath fallen rubble. He dropped his gun and quickly fell to his knees. He then laid Conner’s head in his lap, and brushed his fingers through his hair. It was clumpy and soiled. His eyes traced every jagged cut and blossomed bruise. He wanted to cry.

“Hey, Buddy, I’m not looking so hot, am I?” Conner coughed, chuckling like a fool. Sky blue eyes opened and they looked shiny and new compared to the rest of him.

“I probably look like crap, it’s okay. We’re okay. We’re going to be okay.” Tim insisted, pulling a cloth from his pocket. He licked at it to wipe at the dried blood on the side of Conner’s face.

“Where is everyone?” All of his words sounded raspy, and dry. Water, he needs water.

“They pulled back.” Tim started digging through his pack rapidly, clumsily dropping things all around them.

“What are you doing here?”

“I had to find you.”

“You need to get out of here.” No. Not without you.

“I’m going to get you out of here.”

“Tim…listen to me.” Tim finally took his pack and poured it all out, and grabbed his canteen. He shoved it towards Conner’s lips.

“I think I have some water left – drink.” Conner listened, and sipped at the water weakly. Tim hated to see him like this. Conner is the strongest of their whole troop. He was always the top of their class physically. To see him this way killed Tim.

When he finally finished, he gasped for air and took a deep croaking breath. It scared Tim, how painful it sounded. Conner licked at his cracked lips and groaned.

“Do you remember that day we both had to run laps around the camp?”

Tim smiled. “It was raining hard. We got soaked.”

“You talked back to a drill instructor, because he was calling everyone faggots.”

“You started a fight with a guy who tried to steal Bart’s food when he was starving.”

“Do you remember what I said to you?”

“You said I had more guts than any other son of bitch you ever knew. You said you wished you were brave like me.” Tim laughed, remembering how ridiculous he felt that someone called him brave.  Most people always saw him as weak, or bookish. Conner saw more than that.

“Then you told me I had true courage and heart for standing up for a friend. No one’s ever said anything like that to me before.” Most people would have stood by and watched. Tim almost did. But Conner didn’t. He went in guns blazing when he saw those guys taking Bart’s food. He always stood up for his friends. Tim admired that deeply.

“No one’s ever told me they wanted to be like me.”

“Do you know what I really wanted to say to you that day?”

“What?”

Conner reached up to stroke his face, and he looked him right in the eye. Sky blue against ocean blue. “I love you.” His voice was full of sincerity and tenderness Tim didn’t know could come from him.

“Conner…” Warm tears streamed down his face, washing the grime on his face. He grabbed Conner’s hand with his own, and squeezed hard lacing their fingers.

“Tim, I love you.”

“Don’t say that.” His chest was tight, and his head was spinning.

“Why not?”

“Dead men talk like that. We’re going to get out of this.” He was choking on sobs. It felt as though a thousand needles were being pushed through his body.

“Tim, I never met a man with valor like you. A man with so much conviction and passion. You’re the smartest man I know too. You’re everything I wish I could be.”

“I can go for help, don’t talk.”

“You never hesitate to stand up for what’s right. You always have a plan, and you never stop believing in yourself. You always seem to be ten steps ahead of everyone else.”

“We’re going to be fine, just stop _, please_.”

“I have always loved all of that about you. I never told you, but I always wanted to. I have been in love with you since the day we ran around that whole entire God forsaken camp in the pouring rain.”

“Just shut up, Conner. Shut up right now.”

“You’ve had my heart this whole time, Tim. I’m sorry I never told you until now.”

“Shut up! Just shut up! Please!” Tim was screaming now, squeezing with everything he could.

“ _I will always love you_.”

“No, no no nonononono stay with me! Stay with me! Conner! Stay with me, god damn it!”

Tim reached down and pressed their lips together desperately. When he pulled back, sky blue slipped away, and his hand fell limp. His world was gone.

 “Conner, I love you too. I love you. I love you. Don’t do this. I love you. Please, please, don’t leave me. I love you too. I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you…I love you.”

I always loved you.


End file.
